CORNFIELDS FOREVER – Isn’t it awesome that the Ozorian Valley has always had an extra hidden location, which not everyone finds but anyone who does can lose themselves in? The Labyrinth has always been there but recently it has slowly started spreading its own wings.No one knows exactly how the Labyrinth is born and reborn each year. Paths are made in the cornfield, you would reply. But the symbols and messages, the locations and themes many times unfold involuntarily and the creators of the Labyrinth act upon the ideas that pop up as they are mapping out the twisting trails. This year, the year of the Snake, we first thought of leading you into a labyrinth depicting elements from Eden with hellish obstacle courses, but we also wanted the Labyrinth creatures to play a bigger role in dreaming up the ‘realm’ they’ll be entertaining visitors in. From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from the Garden of Eden, we ended up at the idea of having ‘Eat Me and Drink Me stuff’, also considering how thirsty visitors could get during a maze adventure, and the thoughts turned to another fitting theme of Alice in Wonderland centered around a Tea Party location in the very middle of the Labyrinth. That’s when the creatures took over, becoming the Queens of Spades, Diamonds and Hearts and Poker face. And by the time the Eat Me apple tree space had been replaced by the Soundmachine location, also introducing an old idea to have sounds bringing the corn field even more alive, we realized that Adam and Eve would also be represented a the festival – much larger than life. You must have met them on the way to the Labyrinth through the shop row.

However, even while we were coming up with and discarding ideas, one thing was decided at once. That the paths this year would truly be ones you get lost on, and making them narrow enough and confusing was a definite deviation from previous years’ maze avenues. In order to make this happen, all of the paths were ‘hand-made’ and no machines were used to make the Labyrinth, for the first time since its existence in the Ozorian Valley. In this sense it will be no different next year, hopefully just even more maze-like.
But back to Wonderland, eventually everyone active in creating the Labyrinth had an individual and special part in it and many members of this year’s Labyrinth team each became responsible for an area or location especially imagined by them. For anything is imaginable in Wonderland, anything can happen there. You might face the silhouette of a huge panda, popcorn might be transformed into porncorn, alices might turn into roadsigns…
And the Queen of Diamonds dreamed of a place where visitors could lounge around in deck chairs under parasols and play some beach volley, filling the location with wheelbarrows of sand. And she dreamed of a place where people could make music from anything they found around them, filling the center of the Labyrinth with melodies and sounds of momentary inspiration.

Nedda N. Nedda

“The labyrinth is a part of Ozora that has been evolving and changing year by year, in even greater steps in the last two years. Thanks to Marti Antal’s dedication, it has become somewhat of an independent program scene, also bearing the fruit of the Labyrinth creatures’ work, whose goal is to make the corn maze even more exciting and fun with each new festival. Creativity and recycling play the most important role in its creation, built 99% from recycled materials this last summer. There are already some budding plans for next year, just wait and see… a proper nighttime labyrinth experience for example. But that’s it for the spoilers!” /Queen of Diamonds/

And the Queen of Spades dreamed of playing games with people and interacting with them, of teaching them to respect the work and art of others, the importance of recycling.
“It would be especially important to emphasize recycling, to mention that everything was made from old pallets, last year’s decoration and stuff left on the festival grounds, the glasses at the Tea Party from plastic bottles and so on. Next year, it would be great to have more games that anyone can enjoy or take part in while in the Labyrinth, regardless of age and level of knowledge. A great addition was definitely having the key-treasure-hunt, with the opportunity of getting a ticket for next year’s festival. We thank the organizers for this opportunity. Concerning the negative side of the Labyrinth experience, I must call people’s attention to respecting the fruit of others’ work, especially because everything was made and built by hand. Some Alice heads were broken off, garbage thrown around, locations destroyed. I asked my friends what their experience was of the newest corn maze and they said, and I share their opinion, that the ticket-winning competition could have been announced earlier on the webpage or some social site because the Ozorian Prophet, where you could read the riddles leading to the keys, did not get to everyone on the festival site, and we, the creatures, had to spend more time telling people about the opportunity instead of spending more time interacting, entertaining and playing with the guests who found the middle of the Labyrinth.” /Queen of Spades/
And the Queen of Hearts filled the Labyrinth with caring and love and got lost in the Labyrinth herself more than once.

“From the four cards, I was characterized by the Heart. The difference this year was basically that there was a community space created in the very center, the ‘heart’ of the Labyrinth with a Tea Party that we held every day right about tea time. It was a good meeting point because everyone had heard about it, the promo being good, and people were looking for it. There were some people who found it only after a couple of days, meaning they had visited several times. I liked the atmosphere, it was really like a small party many times. From the four of us (creatures) Ági (Spades) and Fanni (Diamonds)were the most active in interacting with people and building the space. I played a larger part in renovating the Labyrinth each day, fixing what had been damaged and clearing up the garbage. And that was the bad part. Next year the decoration has to be much sturdier and perhaps through more communication we can draw people’s attention to not damage or break the Labyrinth props and constructions. Offering something to drink was a great idea that we must keep in some form next year too. It gets really hot when you lose yourself in the maze. I also think it was great that Poker Face (Bárány) taught the arriving people to play magic sticks, but we should have many more kinds of activities. When too many people arrived at once, though, it was wonderful to see how they started their own concerts, some had a didgeridoo or a guitar to add to the musical atmosphere. In other words, the middle of the Labyrinth was a fun place. People liked the other locations too. They thought it was great that it was this hard, that people really lost their way, got back to where they started out from and some never even found the Tea Party. Even I got lost twice before my ‘working Labyrinth hours’, so that was memorable and I promised myself never to go in alone again. Everyone also liked that there was a leading concept, Alice… and I hope next year we can make even more decorations, because it makes the Labyrinth even more special. As part of the Labyrinth adventure, we also built a Bliss Field gazebo, thinking of the more romantic couples Welcome in Paradise, but it became one of the more perfect spots to set up camp around, so it was more of a pretty and colorful landmark than what its primary intention was. Naturally, what I liked the best was the Field of Hertz. I just wish there were even more hearts. I was also happy with our costumes and I wish to thank Rebeka Andresik and Erika Sárdi for them (they made the Queen of Hearts and Diamonds costumes). And of course a great thanks goes to Szende and the guys responsible for building and construction.” /Queen of Hearts/

This year, after the need for a central Tea Party location was agreed on, in addition to a gazebo, the need for a new Labyrinth team member became apparent. We needed someone who could make our ideas materialize, a talent with wooden structures. This is how we found Gergely Lányi, the pallet-master. His first greater work was creating and furnishing the interior of a shop based on the ideals of sustainability and green ideas, reflecting these through the design and structures, everything from the floor to the last piece of furniture made from recycled wood and pallets. He has also helped in all kinds of carpentry work from building a bakery and playground elements to furniture, inspired to start creating from wood by a carpenter he met at a venue in Brussels. But this was not the first time he contributed to the festival. Three years ago he took part in building the Magic Garden as well, and has also been called to help out in the building process of other festivals.

Nedda N. Nedda

For this summer’s Labyrinth he used about 50 old pallets and some waste wood found on site. It took him about a week, quoting him, ‘in a comfortable pace’, to create the Tea Party furniture, the gazebo, the guest book stand, to mention the larger additions to the Labyrinth. To the question about his future goals, he replies with a twinkle in his eye: “To grow old as beautifully as Béla bácsi and Sally (the Wisdom Elders)”. And while he ensured me that he is open to any kinds of projects and creative work with any kinds of materials, and also next year’s Labyrinth dream design, when I asked him what he considers his greatest masterpiece so far, he said he hadn’t created it yet. One day, he hopes it will be the house he builds himself.
So, without getting lost for too long on any further trails of the Labyrinth, here’s a huge thanks to all who helped design, build, create, care for and fill the corn field maze with content and life, the Labyrinth Team this year: Marti Antal, Tamás Avar, Éva Malatinszky, Fanni Faur, Nedda N Nedda, Agni Kortvelyesi, Szuper Bárány, Lajos Balatoni, Kinte Kunta Tree, Gergely Lányi and Sara Feher. Special thanks to Öli Tamás Mezey, our foreign correspondent, Carolina Lopez, all our contributing friends and the organizers of O.Z.O.R.A. for letting us expand our universal playgrounds into the cornfields.